Sako and Kiyomi looked out the window and up at the sky.

“Why’s it snowing?” Sako asked.

“Because it’s December?” Kiyomi replied.

That didn’t help Sako. “So, is there a scientific explanation for the crystallization like how there is in the real world?”

“How should I know?”

“I thought you knew everything.”

Kiyomi rolled her eyes.

There were already blankets of snow outside on rooftops and on the ground.

Ping. A message?

They both made a swipe in the air and pulled up their UI.

The message icon glowed on Kiyomi’s holoscreen. She tapped to open it and read.

 

         Greetings All,

Grab your snow gear, don your Santa hats and stockings, and prepare yourselves because starting tomorrow at 7:00 game time, there will be a new season-exclusive quest! Yes, a quest only available until the end of the month. More info to come. Stay tuned!

 

At the bottom was Mod Aelis’ name and signature.

“So, are we doing it?” Sako asked.

“Of course.” Kiyomi had her hopes up. She couldn’t wait to see the quest reward.

Quests and monsters were all that mattered for getting good stuff. Shops only had low-quality, low-leveled, and useless gear and items—except for little things like regular consumables: potions, ingredients, food, herbs etc.

She headed to the door. “Let’s head into town and see if we can find out what everyone’s up to.” This was a time-sensitive case. They had to act now. If they could eavesdrop and find out from other players what their plans were, they could be one of the earliest teams to complete the quest when it was released. Then they could sell the reward on the Auction House to make a crap ton of gold before the price dropped. The item would be extremely expensive on release, no doubt and as long as it was tradeable. Supply and demand.

~~~

They went through the streets, looking left and right to glean information from nearby conversations. 

Kiyomi wondered if they actually needed snow gear. Would the environment be cold, icy, and snowy? But where would she even get…

“Yo, I think we oughta get some winter shoes fo’ tomorrow, jus’ in case, you know?” a man said to his two friends in front of a shop.

“Aight. Let’s go, bro,” one of the two replied.

Kiyomi stopped some distance away on the sidewalk to avoid being noticed.

Sako continued walking towards them, oblivious. She was about to ask for directions to the shop or something silly.

She grabbed her wrist and yanked her back.

“What—?”

“How about we not talk to people for once, hm? No time to make friends. Just follow them.” This wasn’t the time for unnecessary conversations. Conversations could get long and annoying.

“Oh, yeah. That could work too.” She nodded.

They followed the men to a store down the street, slipped into the store, and looked around.

The three guys were doing the same.

Kiyomi decided quickly, took the most expensive type after analyzing the stats, paid for them, and walked out, handing Sako her pair of boots. The boots had significantly higher stats than the ones they were wearing.

The boots appeared on their feet once they tapped some buttons on their holoscreens.

Kiyomi began moving again with Sako following behind. Where to next… She looked around.

“Do you want me to pay you back?”

“It’s fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Awww, you love me that much, don’t youuuu?”

“What. I never said that.”

She threw her arms around Kiyomi’s neck, pressing her chest against her back.

This forced Kiyomi to stop. 

“Don’t think I don’t remember that day at the inn!”

“What day?”

Sako put on her best seductive voice. A warm, soft, sexy one. “‘Oh noooo… never… not my…” She whispered the last part, letting her hot breath tickle Kiyomi’s ear. “...dear… sweet Sako…’”

Kiyomi stiffened as the memory came back to her. A bright redness rose in her cheeks and across her nose. “I never said that…”

“‘My Sako who I love forever and ever…’” Sako ended with a high, long moan. “Mmm… aaaaah!”

Somehow, that flipped a switch inside Kiyomi. She didn’t know what she felt. It made her tingly just for a moment before she came back to her senses. “Th-that was sarcasm, dumbass! And I never said that last bit.”

“Oh, so you do remember saying the first part? Hahaha!”

“...No…” Kiyomi broke free of her hug and turned to meet her eyes.

“Lie all you want, but I know the truth!” She threw her arms up in the air dramatically. “I’ll tell the whole world!”

People around were looking at them.

Kiyomi flushed even harder, trying to avoid their eyes. “Sako, you’re embarrassing us!”

“Oh, it’s not like it’ll kill you.”

Kiyomi stormed away from her.

She followed and caught up to her, giggling slightly.

Kiyomi didn’t say a word while they walked for several blocks. “My friend taught me that at school.”

“Taught what.” That could’ve been anyone. To Sako, everyone was her friend, even if they hated her guts. Kiyomi was only half interested, knowing that Sako was about to say something stupid again.

“How to flirt of course!”

“You can… flirt?” Kiyomi eyed her skeptically.

“Yep. Learned it before we got here. She said it works on boys and girls. And it sure got you good.” Sako smirked.

Kiyomi couldn’t hide her blush. “Shut the fuck up,” she mumbled.

She laughed, proud of her effort. “And that’s how I got a boyfriend! She said, ‘You have to sound like you need it badly’. I still don’t know what ‘it’ is though. When I asked her, she told me to figure it out, since I’m ‘smart and all’.”

“Right…” Except her smartness only applied to academics. That girl had only meant book smart. No doubt. And that sarcasm had gone over Sako’s head. That all explained her extremely high Charisma now. That had been a head-scratcher for the longest while. It made sense, especially since Sako learned things quickly and well.

“Sako, you’re very…” Stupid wasn’t the right word “...Impressionable, you know that?” She was wet clay. Or a sponge. Both.

“What? Really? How?”

Kiyomi didn’t answer and walked on quietly.

“Tell meeeee,” she whined.

“Figure it out. You’re smart, aren’t you?”

“Hmph,” she grunted.

~~~

“What if they… uh… make us fight some big, ol’ yeti?” One chubby woman sipped from her glass and set it back down on the wooden, round table. 

“Nah, this gon’ be special and o-rig-i-nal. Someth’n’ bigg’r like a… dragon?” a man replied next to her. 

“Thaz not—HIC—or’gin’l.”

Several more sat at the table in the Adventurers’ Guild. They were drunk.

Surprisingly, Elora was awake and standing at the counter, alert. She looked around the room, making sure everything was in order. She had said Cystenn had been allowing her to get more sleep recently, especially since he had hired more staff who shockingly hadn’t quit on him—yet. Something about seeing the error of his ways or whatever. 

Next thing you know, he goes right back to his old ways next year. Kiyomi wouldn’t be surprised. People never truly changed. Never. She was sitting around a corner table. The lights over this section of the room were very dim. She preferred the dimness over the brightness.

It was nighttime and players had filled all the seats under the warm, orange lighting of the hall. Everyone was excited. It was the perfect place to be. 

Kiyomi had her UI open, typing away occasionally after catching some info with her ear. So far, she had a lot of notes about the possibilities. She made sure to pay close attention to the high-level players. They should know their shit better than anyone else. But the game was still only a few weeks old, so there weren’t many precedents—quests in particular—anyone could use to try and anticipate the one coming tomorrow. 

Sako was busy talking, smiling, and making friends at another table full of guys. They were captivated by her words as she spoke cheerily. She then told some sort of joke, and they all laughed.

A bit of apprehension creeped into Kiyomi’s mind, but she pushed it aside and refocused on her typing.

In a few minutes, a bottle broke on the floor. Everyone fell quiet. She stopped typing and looked up from her screen. 

Two men stood up.

“She said she’s coming with me.” One man said to the other.

“What?! Hey, I said I would consider dropping by sometime…” Sako chimed in.

“No, she was talking to me and said she would join my party and keep me company,” the other man snapped and shoved him.

“I… never said any of that…” Sako mumbled. No one was paying her any attention. She gave up and stopped talking.

“Hey, back off, pal!” A third guy got up from the table to support the second who had been pushed by the first. He caught him just in time before he fell.

“Or what?” A fourth got up, glaring at the third.

“Shut up and stay outta this!” The third punched the fourth in the jaw, and he fell over onto his back on the floor.

The fifth and last man got up. He was tall, stout, and hairy. Basically a bear. His stomach hung out a little. Actually, he could’ve easily overpowered a bear with his meaty, bare hands. His voice was deep, and his beard was big and bushy. He narrowed his eyes at the three standing men. “You wanna fight like little girls? Take it somewhere else. I’m here for fun.” He spat on the floor before them.

“Are you saying we’re girls?!”

“Yeah, basically,” the stout one replied. “You too stupid to get that?”

“At least we ain’t no FAT PIG!” one retorted.

Now all three of them laughed. The fourth one on the floor joined in on the laughter weakly as he propped himself up on his elbows.

There were a few giggles around the room.

“WHAT?!” The fat pig—er, sizable man looked about. Everybody stopped. He turned back to the men and lifted the thick, hefty table next to him with one fucking hand.

Sako stepped away discreetly to another table of people—who were eagerly watching and waiting as if this was a movie—to stay out of the mess.

If only Kiyomi had a camera to record this. All she could do was check their stats. And to her excitement, all their info was on full display. No surprise, really. They all looked like they had nothing to hide. No shame. Only pride. Full of arrogance. Their levels were maxed—Level 1 000. The four men wore Epic-grade gear. The larger one had Legendary-grade. They all had considerable stat bonuses on every stat. These people were mad. Endgame gear so early? How the fuck… She was envious. Unlike these madmen, she ate and got her eight hours of sleep. And also wasted time with Sako. No, actually, it wasn’t a waste of time. She loved having Sako around and hearing her dumb thoughts and… 

ANYWAY.

The four men stood up with close-combat, bladed weapons drawn. 

The man swung the table at them.

One of them easily sliced the table in two with his hefty sword.

The two halves fell on the floor.

Kiyomi glanced at Elora. She sensed an evil energy emanating from her.

Elora looked like a bloodthirsty demon who was ready to mow down countless souls. Yikes. The Guild would have to spend money to replace that table. It looked pretty expensive too.

Kiyomi looked down at her own table and rubbed her fingers along it. It was genuine mahogany. All the tables were mahogany.

Sako saw the enraged Elora then flashed Kiyomi a sheepish grin. She mouthed a silent “sorry” at Kiyomi.

Kiyomi shook her head slowly in mild disappointment. Well done, Sako, well done. Silly Sako. The scene was amusing nonetheless.

“Ah, so ya got an actual brain in there, do ya?” A pair of weighty gauntlets appeared on the stout man’s hands. He was ready to throw ground-shattering punches. 

The men readied themselves, taking their stances, blades pointed at him.

“My money’s on the big one!” a fellow on the far side of the room shouted to everyone.

“You been drinking too much! No sense in that head, eh?!” someone else shouted back from the opposite side of the room—Kiyomi’s side, a few tables away.

“You shad uuuup!” He swayed in this seat. “I got plenty o’ sense, unlike yo mama!” He flung a bottle across the room and hit the fellow.

He shrieked as the bottle broke against his head, causing it to bleed. “YOU TAKE THAT BACK!” He flung a bottle back across the room but hit the wrong guy at a different table. 

The guy growled. “Watch where yer throwin’. Yer lookin’ fer a fight, buddy!”

“And what if I don’t, huh? You gonna whine and cry about a little bottle? Be a REAL man!”

Glass bottles were thrown back and forth. More and more people began throwing when any strays hit them. Some people ducked under tables for cover. Strays bounced off Kiyomi’s forcefield.

The main event started. All five of them tussled. Blades clashed against defensively raised gauntlets. They yelled spells and cast the elements. One got in the way of another and soon, the four were fighting themselves as well as the bear who threw more and more tables.

Sako carefully crawled under chairs and tables. Once she reached Kiyomi’s, she slipped under the table and came up into the seat beside her where she was safe behind the forcefield.

Kiyomi eyed her.

“Soooo, what’s next, bestie?” Sako put an arm around her with a simple smile because nothing was going on. Absolutely nothing. Everything was fine!

“Welp, I got all the notes I could, so we can go now.” 

As soon as Kiyomi got up, an assertive voice penetrated the air and hushed everyone.

“YOU CALL YOURSELVES ADVENTURERS?”

They all stopped and directed their attention to Elora who was a different person.

“ALL I SEE ARE SENSELESS ANIMALS THAT ARE NO BETTER THAN THE ONES IN THE WILD.”

“But ma’am—” someone spoke up.

“BUT NOTHING. I’LL BE DEDUCTING FUNDS FROM ALL THE CULPRITS TO PAY FOR THE DAMAGES. LOOK AT THE WALLS, FLOORS, AND FURNITURE!” She gestured at the room.

There were various spots of different colors on the walls and floors from the drinks people had thrown. The cracks and holes in the walls and floor, broken tables, and broken chairs made the place even uglier.

“You can’t do that! That’s not fair. They started it.”

“Yeah, that ain’t fair, lady!”

“Yeah!”

Others began to mumble.

“Are those objections? Should I increase the charge?”

They held their breaths. No one made a sound.

“That’s what I thought. It will be done.”

Players checked their inventories.

“She really did it?!” one man asked.

“Pfft. Must be a bug. As if these NPCs can do jack,” a second man answered.

“Haha! It’s real. Get your eyes checked.” A third laughed, since he was innocent.

“What do you mean get my eyes checked?! You think I’m blind?!”

“Totally.”

They glared at one another.

Another fight was about to begin.

Elora cleared her throat loudly.

They remembered her presence and didn’t bother.

Kiyomi was off the hook. She didn’t do anything wrong.

Sako was as happy as ever, so she was apparently innocent too. No violence meant no penalties. She still had an arm around her, now humming and rocking both of them gently to a rhythm in her head.

What’s with this girl? Despite knowing Sako for a few years, she still managed to puzzle her sometimes. She hadn’t drunk anything, so she was definitely sober…

~~~

At 6: 55 a.m. game time, Mod Aelis messaged everyone with the essential info about the quest and its rewards. The first 100 players would get some bonus rewards from her.

As some players had predicted, the quest-holder was the first princess of the kingdom, Symphony Elle Marzenwick—Vanescka’s older sister. According to Mod Aelis’ short description of her, she was 19 with a musical knack for playing every instrument. A maestro. 

Kiyomi and Sako were already at the palace gates, waiting around with some other players.

As time passed, the crowd size and chattering increased.

At 7, an orchestra started in the courtyard as the gates opened despite no one’s presence .

People made their way in, double file, passing the courtyard and in through the open double doors of the castle entrance where the music was louder.

Christmas ornaments decorated the spacious room. Guards stood by the walls and saluted together with candy canes in their hands. Their armor was Christmas-themed—red and green. They looked less like guards and more like dressed-up dolls.

After a while, the music stopped, and all was quiet except for a violin.

“This is embarrassing. I want my sword back,” a guard mumbled.

“You’ll get it tomorrow,” the guard beside him replied.

The first guard sighed.

At the center of the main hall stood a blonde girl in a black dress. She stopped playing her violin and turned around to everyone. The violin and the violin bow dissolved in the air, turning to light particles then scattered and vanished. Her face lit up when she saw everyone. “Good, you are here as requested! Symphony has a tiny favor to ask. Nothing much!”

Why did Kiyomi doubt that…

“She is in the process of crafting an exquisite flute, one that will produce the most magnificent sound! But she simply cannot take on such a difficult task without your assistance.” She frowned. “She has toiled away for several weeks, reading all sorts of books, and at last, she has finally discovered a wonderful method!” Her smile returned. “Symphony plans on forging the fabled Aorian Flute, a flute said to contain vast power (and elegance)! As such, she requires Aorian Energy that can only be collected from an Aorian wyvern’s heart.”

“So, you want us to kill Aorian wyverns?” someone asked.

“Precisely! She merely needs at least 1 million hearts, some of which will be used as its energy source. She will also provide you with a replica. Though it will be an inferior version unfortunately as she cannot replicate such an unparalleled greatness so easily.”

1 million what…

“A minuscule number for such skilled, strong adventurers, yes?” Symphony asked.

People talked among themselves.

Sako gave a thumbs up to Kiyomi with her usual confident smile, quietly saying, “We can do this!”

“1 mil’s too many! These wyverns are Level 10 000!”

“That’s sum craaaazy amount, fam.”

“Is Aelis really gon’ make us do dis?”

“Thas a lotta work.”

“Aelis clownin’ on us.”

“What do Aorian wyverns look like again?”

“They look like chameleons.”

“Ohhh, right, right. Gotcha.”

Symphony took all the responses as a yes. “Symphony has faith in you all, and she wishes to see you soon again, adventurers! Adieu!” She waved.

Everyone was teleported out and back at the front gates to the courtyard, which was now closed. The talking got louder. 

“We should party up. It’ll make things easier.”

“Yeah, we need really big parties for this one, boys. If we party, it’ll only take us about three weeks.”

“Good plan.”

Kiyomi and Sako slipped out of the crowd. They should do just fine as a duo.

“Based on my notes from last night, there should be a wyvern nest near the top of the Crescent mountain. It’s way up north. The quickest way is to fly there. Can you fly by the way?”

“Yep.” Sako was as ready as ever. She put a ring onto her finger and admired it. “Haha! Hey! It’s like I’m proposing to myself.” Her weirdness came back.

“Ew.” 

“What? Should I propose to you instead?”

Kiyomi ignored the bad joke and levitated into the air.

Sako followed suit.

They went off.

~~~

It was cold and windy but Kiyomi’s forcefield shielded them and kept them warm. They had on Winter Goggles so that they could see through the snowstorm—another idea from her notes. At a certain point, they had to stop flying and keep going on foot: at a certain altitude, there was a magical wind current that they couldn’t fly past. It disrupted their magic. The snow boots prevented them from slipping on snow as well as ice no matter how steep the mountain was. 

While they climbed, Kiyomi knocked away any flying monsters that came their way with projectiles.

Kiyomi kept track of the time and checked once in a while. It took hours. 

They reached the top. The ground was an ice rink. Wyverns slept everywhere on it. They were huge.

Wyverns flew in from the sky and roared at the intruders.

Many yellow eyes opened around them. Heads raised. Wyverns got to their feet, ready to eat them. A nearby one opened its mouth and leaned down. 

Sako jumped and drove her fist up under its chin, sending it high into the air. 

On its way down, she jumped again and kicked it so hard that it flew off the summit and plummeted.

As time passed, players climbed up the mountain side and stepped onto the summit with their snow boots and started their own fights with wyverns around them.

Kiyomi’s Fanatic buff made it much easier for the both of them. But even with that, it took a lot of effort and persistence. 

Despite being a wizard, Sako didn’t use spells. They would lessen her DPM (damage per minute). She was more comfortable with her martial arts.

Countless wyverns came in from the sky from sunup to sundown.

Players around them fought and eventually fled when they had enough. None died because Sako kept redirecting her attention to protect people even though no one ever asked for her. She would pull or push them out of the way and sometimes hit the wyvern lethally when it was about strike. Her efforts dropped her DPM.

By nightfall, it was just Kiyomi, Sako, and the endless wyverns that kept coming down from the sky. Kiyomi spammed AOEs when she could, especially explosions. Sako spammed punches and kicks—simple but effective. Kiyomi blocked the breath attacks with her forcefield. Sako used her as a shield then dove back out when possible to continue her physical attacks.

The sun rose again. The wyverns didn’t stop, neither did Kiyomi and Sako.

“We have a mil!” Sako yelled over the raspy roars and hissing fires and acids. They stood back to back.

“Alright, we’re leaving!” Kiyomi yelled back. She felt weary, but they couldn’t rest here or drink a Stamina Recovery Potion. She quickly grabbed Sako’s hand once she stopped throwing her punches. They teleported and appeared at the base of the mountain where they had started. They were panting.

It had taken twenty-one hours of nonstop fighting.

Kiyomi pulled up a calculator on her holoscreen and did the math. About 48K kills per hour. Not bad, but they could’ve done better if a certain airhead hadn’t played hero. Blip. That was an odd sound she heard. She wondered where it had come from. After checking the world chat, she saw their announced achievement:

[Sako Kosetsu’s party is the first to acquire 1 million Aorian hearts from Mount Crescent!]

Perfect. Now they would be targets. Which dumb admin had made this chat system? And she couldn’t seem to teleport or fly. Something in the area was preventing that. A spell? For now, they would have to walk until they reached out of range or find whatever was causing that. Likely someone.

“Can we rest?” Sako asked.

Kiyomi gulped down a green liquid from a bottle. Her stamina bar refilled quickly. Her MP automatically recovered rapidly. She gave the bottle to Sako who was sitting on the snow-covered ground. “No. Here.”

She nodded gratefully and finished the bottle. Her bar recovered too.

“Keep your guard up.” Kiyomi started moving again. 

Sako followed.

They only made a few footsteps to the forest before dozens of people came out of it with devious smiles.

They must’ve been waiting for hours for others to descend from the mountain so they could PK them for the hearts, since they were too scared to go up the mountains themselves.

Sako waved at them. “Morning!”

No one waved back.

She turned to Kiyomi. “Any reason why they’re not waving back?”

“They’re PKers.” Was she being this dense on purpose?

“Yeah, that makes sense,” she replied.

A few checked their holoscreens.

One shouted. “Oi! They’re low levels! We can take ’em!”

Sure.

Kiyomi was at full strength, and she was in a hurry. There were only two things to do: tear through their numbers and sprint through the forest until she could tele out. 

“Hand them over and we won’t kill you,” a stern man said as he approached. He was hairy and big. His eyebrows were thick.

Kiyomi recognized him. He had been at the Guild. The bear of a man.

The four men who he had fought stood behind him as support.

Sako pointed at the men. “Hey, weren’t you all fighting that big guy the other night?”

One of them answered, “Yeah, but we’re teaming up for now for the hearts. Just for now. We mean it though. We won’t kill you, only her.” All five looked at Kiyomi.

What? Am I not pretty enough or something?

“It’s funny though,” a girl spoke up from the backline a distance away where the bulk of players waited. “How did a couple of low-levels get all those so quickly?”

“Hm?” The bear looked her way. “Dunno. Cheats? Doesn’t matter.”

This guy wasn’t very bright.

“Hey, let’s talk this out. We have extra hearts. You can have those instead.” Sako eyed Kiyomi for permission.

“No way in hell. They can fuck off,” Kiyomi snapped instantly. And it wasn’t as if they would be satisfied with a few extras anyway. “You’re scared, little girls too weak to kill the wyverns. I get it. You’ll only go up the mountain, piss and shit your pants, and run back down crying.” She grinned.

Sako was visibly uncomfortable at that comment.

“THEM’S FIGHT’N’ WORDS!” someone shouted.

 “YEAH!” more shouted in unison.

The bear’s glare failed to intimidate Kiyomi.

As for Sako, Kiyomi understood she feared hurting them badly from self-defense. She didn’t take hits, only gave them—as expected of a glass cannon.

“W-what?! Are we fighting for real?!” Sako backed up. 

They all ran at the girls, screaming with weapons.

Kiyomi lifted her staff and black meteors with dark tails rained down.

Some screamed in horror as they got crushed. Some jumped out of the way. One fell on the bear man but broke into small chunks and fell around his unscathed body. His HP didn’t drop.

What was he made of?

“Don’t kill them!” Sako exclaimed.

“Can’t be helped.” Kiyomi couldn’t care less. They’d respawn. And if they lost gear on death, served them right.

People ran at Kiyomi with melee weapons.

Volley of Shadows. While swaying her staff, human-sized, black spheres flew up and out of her shadow on the ground and rained down onto them.

The adventurers screamed as they got annihilated.

Now the bear man was left.

Sako kept dodging his punches.

Eventually, he jumped back to make distance between him and Kiyomi and Sako. He pointed his hand to them. “WEAPON ART…!”

In a burst of speed, Kiyomi closed the distance and socked him in the jaw using the head of her staff. No time for this crap.

THUD. He fell on his back, HP at zero.

”Did you have to?” Sako asked.

“ Yes.” She pictured the map in her head and all the available locations. She could teleport now. Grabbing Sako’s hand, they left and appeared at the palace entrance.

The gates to the courtyard opened for them. 

Symphony was playing a steady, calm tune on her violin not too far away. She saw them and stopped. “Ah, you are back!” Her violin and bow dematerialized again, freeing her hands.

“We have the hearts!” Sako said.

“Splendid work! Symphony shall take them then.” She extended her hand.

The stacks of hearts in their inventories disappeared.

They appeared in Symphony’s hand as a multicolored bright ball of energy. Gradually, the sphere shaped itself into a fancy flute that she then lifted to her mouth and played. The exquisite, addicting tune was to die for. Every note was hit flawlessly with passion at a fast tempo. As she danced around with it, musical notes emerged from the flute and drifted around in the air.

After a few minutes, when there were enough flying notes, they joined and formed into the shape of the same flute and floated down for Sako to catch.

“Thank you.” Sako grinned.

“Oh no, no, thank you, adventurer.” Symphony curtsied while her own flute levitated. “Farewell now. There is much musical work to be done.” She waved.

Sako waved back as she and Kiyomi walked back out through the gates.

They went to the Auction House, sold it, and got 50 million.

Sako split it in half and traded Kiyomi.

Ping.

Kiyomi checked her messages. It was from Mod Aelis.

Good job, adventurers! You’ve earned a few bonuses. See the attached.

A weapon was attached.

Sugarcane scythe:

Description

Minty fresh decapitation. For critical strikes aimed at the head, decapitate the enemy. Causes a fountain of various Christmas candies to shoot out, healing nearby allies. The damage is 1 if the weapon does not land as critical, but critical strikes are 30 times as effective as a Legendary-grade, max-leveled, melee weapon.

So, garbage, and they couldn’t wield it. But because it was rare, the value was high.

There was another reward: a generous amount of Magic Gel. This could be useful.

Blip.

Kiyomi checked the chat. Another team had just collected 1 million hearts. So, there were other players out there with exceptional abilities too. Interesting.